Case of the Month - June 2019
A 59 year old woman with history of a right corneal ulcer presented to the eye clinic because of sharp pain in the right eye for five days. The pain was constant and associated with a cloudy discharge. An ocular examination revealed a 3.5 by 2.5 mm ulceration on the superior-temporal region of the cornea with cloudy infiltrates overlying the ulcerated region. The ophthalmologist obtained direct specimens from the ulcer for Gram stain and cultures.
Figure 1 shows the Gram stain and Figure 2 shows growth on blood agar after several days.
- What is the organism?
- What do you do next (two choices) to confirm the genus and species?
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Figure 1: Gram stain from the corneal ulcer.
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Figure 2: growth on blood agar from direct plating of the corneal ulcer.